Animal Love

Thursday night, I noticed that Marley was not quite himself. He does spend a lot of time in the evenings just lying around, but at 7 p.m., I realized that he had not touched his food, chewed on his bone, ran around playing with the kids, or anything all evening. I sat next to him and petted him, and he gave me such a sad look. He felt warm, but I wasn't sure if that was something new, or if he always felt like that, or if his nose was always so dry...Then he threw up. Then he threw up again. I got worried and called Todd, who came home from work. Marley did not move from his spot by my feet for two hours. When Todd came home, his ears perked up, and he walked over to him with his head down. We knew something was terribly wrong. He normally attacks Todd every night and jumps all over him until it gets sickening. The poor baby...

We couldn't bear to put him in the garage overnight, so we let him sleep in the house. In the morning Todd took him to the vet. We were afraid that he had eaten something he shouldn't have, and maybe it was stuck. I was worried sick all day at work. After work I went to pick him up and found out he had parvovirus.

Parvo is very serious, especially for puppies. Small dogs and puppies almost always die from it. It causes vomiting, fever, diarrhea, lack of appetite, etc. Dogs get dehydrated very quickly. Marley wouldn't eat or drink anything. The vet gave us some phone numbers of clinics to take him to if he got worse. I think she expected that he would.

But he didn't. That night I fed him some boiled hamburger per the vet's instructions, and he perked up a little. Over the weekend we squirted water into his mouth to keep him hydrated. He ate very little and was still lethargic, but he slowly improved. Last night when we came home from being gone all day, he jumped all over us with excitement.

I couldn't believe how his illness affected me. I had to fight back tears when I worried they would have to put him to sleep or that he would die. I have never really been attached to a dog before. He chews up things he shouldn't. He jumps on people when they come over. He eats food off the counter when we aren't looking. But we still love him to death. He's like one of the kids. To see the look in his eyes when we are around, and to be able to give him comfort and see how much he loves us and needs us is just amazing. And to see how much the kids were worried about him too was heartbreaking.

I just picked up the stuffing from one of Drew's stuffed animals spread all over the living room floor. It's annoying, but I'm happy that he is acting like his normal self again.